330 NOTICE OF A SKULL BROUGHT FROM THE CRIMEA. 
Morten Collection in the Academy of Sciences at Philadelphia: ‘* The 
extreme South-eastern section of the European ethnic area, occupy- 
ing mainly the table-land of Iran, is represented in the Morton 
Collection by six Armenian, two Persian, and one Affehan skull. A 
general family resemblance pervades all these crania. They are all, 
with one exception, remarkable for the smallness of the face, and 
shortness of head. In the Armenian skull, the forehead is narrow 
and well formed, the convexity extending upwards and backwards 
towards the parietal protuberances and laterally towards the tempo- 
ral bones. The greatest transverse diameter is between the parietal 
bones. This feature, combined with the flatness of the occiput, gives 
to the coronal region, an outline resembling a triangle with all three 
angles truncated, and the base of the triangle looking posteriorly. 
In fact, the whole form of the calvaria is such as to impress the mind 
of the observer with a sense of squareness and angularity. The 
dimensions of the orbits are moderate; the malar bones small, flat, 
and retreating ; zygomatic processes slender, and the general expres- 
sion of the face resembling that of the Circassians, from which 
latter it differs in being shorter.’ On nearly all those points, the 
Kertch skull closely corresponds to this description of Armenian 
Cranial characteristics. The only noticable exceptions are in the 
orbits, which may be described as somewhat large, but with 
their perpendicular diameter the greatest ; and in the length of the 
face, which has more of the assigned Circassian dimensions, 
The formation of the lower jaw indicates a delicately pointed and 
small chin. Viewed altogether, the peculiar features of this skull 
are well defined, and sufficiently characteristic to enable an expe- 
rienced craniologist to assign it, with little hesitation, to the Iranian 
group, with its included Georgians, Lesgians, Circassians, and Arme- 
nians. Of those the last named—to which the Kertch cranium 
seems by its most prominent peculiarities to belong,—possesses 
some characteristics of peculiar interest. In his “ Varieties of Man,” 
Dr. Latham places the Armenians foremost among his “ unplaced 
stocks ;” but regarding them from a philological point of view, he 
seems to consider them as in some respects presenting indications of 
a link between the Indo-European and the Semitic groups; but he also 
adds: “itis through the Armenian, thatthe transition from the Mon- 
golide, to the Atlantide, is most likely to be recognised.” Obtained | 
as the skull now described has been, under peculiar and somewhat un- 
